Neoplasma Vol.59, No.2, p.233-236, 2012

Gastric cancer is the second most common among cancer-related deaths in the world. Systemic chemotherapy for patients with gastric cancer has limited impact on overall survival. We performed a retrospective analysis of the efficacy and side effects of Docetaxel and Cisplatin Plus Fluorouracil (DCF) versus Modified-Dose Docetaxel, Cisplatin, and 5-Fluorouracil (mDCF) in the metastatic gastric cancer with first-line chemotherapy treated patients.
Retrospectively were reviewed 107 locally advanced or metastatic gastric cancer patients who were treated DCF or mDCF as first-line treatment from June 2007 to August 2011 in Dicle University Hospital, Department of Medical Oncology.
The DCF protocol included 75 mg/m2 docetaxel and cisplatin on day 1 and 750 mg/m2/day 5-FU infusion for 5 days, repeated every 3 weeks. The mDCF protocol included 60 mg/m² docetaxel and cisplatin on day 1 and 600 mg/m² 5-Fluorouracil continuous infusion per day on days 1–5, every 3 weeks.
Patients were treated using DCF arm 85 (M: 56, F: 29), the mDCF arm 22 (M: 13, F: 9) After treatment toxicities were: Grade III-IV neutropenia (48.2% vs 13.6% p=0.003), anemia (21.2% vs 4.5% p=0.06), nausea (44.7% vs 13.6% p=0.008) and vomiting (31.8% vs 4.5%, p=0.01) was higher in the DCF arm.

Other toxicities profile was similar in both groups (p>0.05). The rate of response was similar in both arm.

Among patients with the DCF and mDCF arm rate complete response (10.3% vs 6.7%, p>0.05), partial response (35.3% vs 40.0%, p>0.05), stable disease (32.4% vs 33.3%, p>0.05), progressive disease (22.1% vs 20.0%, p>0.05) and overal response (45.6% vs 46.7%, p>0.05) did not have a statistically difference (p>0.05).

Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were more favorable in the DCF arm than mDCF arm, but the difference was not significant statistically (9.9 vs 8.6, 7.4 vs 6.5 p>0.05)
In conclusion, the response rate, median PFS and median OS are similar in both arms, while the mDCF regimen are more favorable than the DCF for toxicity profile regimen in advanced gastric cancer patients who were undergoing first-line palliative treatment. Therefore, a prospective and larger clinical trials are needed.